Bsecure CloudCare handles all necessary parental control tasks, but competing products do those same tasks better and include innovative features. A smart kid could get around most of Bsecure's parental controls.

Powerless Program Control
Bsecure can block use of several dozen specific programs in six categories: instant messaging, peer-to-peer file sharing, proxies, malware, games, and media. When your child tries to launch a blocked program, Bsecure displays a small notification. Clicking the notification brings up a box that lets a parent (or anyone having the master password) turn off blocking for this program once or permanently.

Smart children will quickly discover that this feature has no teeth. All they need do is make a copy of the blocked program and launch the copy. A similar feature in Safe Eyes that blocks Internet access for specific programs has the same weakness.

Bsecure also logs the start time, end time, and duration for every program launched under each user's account. Since this list includes tons of system processes like ctfmon.exe and verclsid.exe that aren't actively launched by the user, it's hard to interpret. Safe Eyes also reports on programs launched but keeps its list in line by reporting only on actual applications and just noting how many times each one was used.

Weak IM Management
Parents can block specific instant messaging programs using the program blocking feature, but as noted kids can easily get around the block. Bsecure's monitoring of instant messaging is similarly weak. It captures IM traffic for specific IM clients (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ, as well as Trillian, Digsby, and Adium) but the information is displayed in truly odd fashion.

For each conversation, Bsecure shows a text box containing all of the outgoing lines merged into a single long stream of text, so you can't tell whether "Yes Yes Yes" is three answers or one emphatic one. And since incoming message lines are omitted completely you don't know whether it means "Yes I did my homework" or "Yes I'll run away with you to Saskatoon." In any case, your child can totally evade IM monitoring by making a copy of the IM client's program file and using the copy.

If you really want to control instant messaging, you need a different product. OnlineFamily.Norton lets you limit which "buddies" your child can chat with. Net Nanny and Safe Eyes can block or monitor instant messaging at the protocol level regardless of which IM client is used. Net Nanny can even filter out profanity in IM!

It's possible you'd prefer to stealthily spy on IM conversations rather than visibly imposing limits. If you can get past the privacy issues, PC Pandora 6.0 ($109.95 direct, ) or Spector Pro 2009 ($99.95 direct, ) will capture every detail. Bsecure takes a very different approach to privacy. It won't even allow remote viewing of the limited logs it does createyou have to read them on the computer where the conversation took place.

Alerts and Remote Configuration
Safe Eyes, Net Nanny, and OnlineFamily.Norton can send an e-mail alert if your child abuses Internet privileges; you configure what sort of actions trigger an alert. Bsecure has a similar feature but it only triggers when the child tries to access a porn site. Like Safe Eyes, Bsecure does offer the handy option to send a text message rather than an e-mail.

Configuring Bsecure from a remote PC is almost identical to controlling it locally. As with Safe Eyes, Net Nanny, and OnlineFamily.Norton, your Bsecure configuration changes take effect almost immediately.

Remotely-viewed activity reports are likewise identical, with the minor exception that you can only invoke the limited display of logged IM conversations on the local machine. That's better than the strange dichotomy displayed by Safe Eyes, which offers a completely different and rather limited report when you're connected remotely.

Bsecure CloudCare does everything that a parental control system must, but often not as well as the competition does. Other programs are more innovative, or better organized, or more resistant to hacking. In fact, the free OnlineFamily.Norton actually does more for you in most areas. Bsecure is a good product, but in this market just good isn't good enough.

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